At last the Ark was brought to Ekron. And there it came to pass that all the city cried out, saying, “They have brought about the Ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.” And that very day the mice came, and the plague. And the men of Ekron sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, “Send away the Ark of the God of Israel, and let it go to its own place, that it slay us not and our people.” And the lords of the Philistines sent for the priests and the diviners, for all the wisest people of the land, and said, “What shall we do to the Ark of the Lord? how shall we send it to its place?” And the wise men said, “Make a new cart, and take two cows and tie them to the cart, and bring their calves home from them. And take the Ark of God and lay it on the cart, and in a box beside the Ark put five gold mice, one for each of your cities. And see what the kine will do. If they go back home to their calves, then we shall know that this is all an accident, it just happened so; but if they go straight towards the land of Israel, then we shall know that it is the Lord’s doing.”
So they made a new cart, and five gold mice, and they put the Ark upon the cart and the mice beside it, and they tied the two cows to the cart and took away their calves, and watched to see what they would do. And, behold, the kine went straight towards the land of Israel, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand nor to the left. Along the valley road they went towards Beth-shemesh, and the lords of the Philistines followed after them. And at Beth-shemesh, men were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes and saw the Ark and rejoiced to see it. And the cows came into the field of a man named Joshua, and there stood still. And it was the field in which the battle had been fought when the Ark had been taken. And the cart stopped beside the great stone, Ebenezer. And the men of Beth-shemesh took the Ark and put it on the top of the great stone, and the five gold mice beside it. And they took the cart and split it up and made a fire for a sacrifice, and there upon the fire they offered God the kine for a burnt offering. And then they rejoiced and gave thanks unto the Lord.
XXIX
SAUL AND THE SEER
HE asses had run away. They had found a hole in the fence and had got out into the road, and nobody knew where they were. So Saul’s father said, “Saul, the asses are lost. Take one of the men with you and go and find them.” And they went in search, Saul and the hired man. And here they looked, and there they looked, down this way and down that, in the woods and in the fields, but they were nowhere to be found. They hunted for them for three days, in vain.
At last, Saul said to the servant, “Come, let us go home. My father will fear that we are lost, as well as the asses. He will be anxious.”
But the servant said, “In the next town there lives a seer. He is the wisest man in all the land. He can see through mountains and tell what is on the other side, and he knows what is going to happen to-morrow and next year. Let us go to him. Perhaps he can tell us where the asses are, and which way we ought to take to find them.”
“We ought not to go to the seer,” said Saul, “without a gift. We ought to take him some sort of present for his trouble. But our hands are as empty as our basket. What can we give him?”
And the servant answered, “I have a little silver money in my purse. That will I give to the man of God to tell us our way.”
“Well said,” replied Saul; “come let us go.” So they went to the next town to find the seer.